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"Clumping" growing technique?

Why does clumping work?
Here's how I see it;
In the middle of summer where temperatures can get quite high here in Australia (in excess of 40`Celsius)
The temperature under the leaves (leaf canopy) of crops like the pepper plant can usually be around 15 degrees Celsius below ambient,
(creating a greenhouse effect)
and this could also protect the plants from colder weather as well by keeping in the heat under the canopy
thus having the same effect....
this could acheive a more balanced microclimate . This would be more helpful by reducing the heat stress,
which means when the weather is much hotter the plants don't have to close up their Stomata
(minute epidermal pores in a leaf or stem through which gases and water vapor can pass letting in the CO2 and letting out the O2 during the day).
when the Stomata close up, it results in the gas exchanges slowing down and thus resulting in less CO2 being absorbed by the plants, i.e. less "body building".
Also enabling less water transference i.e. the plant's Capillary action
(less nutrients being drawn up from soil and less nutrients being absorbed via the roots and also from the leaves via the atmosphere).
Another bonus from having a canopy, brings into play the fight for sunlight. (causing the plants to grow alot bigger/faster so as to compete for the sunlight).
By having a canopy would really help with the prevention of drying out of the upper layer of soil. A growing trait that chillies are very sensitive to.
Growing in this way could explain why a pepper jungle can handle more extreme heat and should also result in a real ecosystem
happening, with lots of beneficial insects
(lady bugs, wasps, spiders and even bees) thriving in this type of garden environment with virtually no pests destroying the plants.


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Thanks JungleRain,
very clear and insightful info. I hadn't thought about the plants competing with each other and growing taller, bonus. I'm sold!
 
in Malaysia we use the therm "Marry" LOL :lol:

in rubber industry they usually clump different variety to get better plant mainly for higher rubber milk production... I tried this method before, I clumped both thai and annuum, few of it were left for both shoots to grow but they didn't last long due to dry weather, some of it I cut up the weakest shoot, most of the plant grew really tall 3 feet tall before splitting (usually 12 inch) and die... others refuse to bind and need lots of water, they will dry out if i miss watering once every 2 days...
 
3 years ago(2008) when I first got a garden going at this residence I dug a 24'[sup]2[/sup](6'X4') pepper patch. I was going to do square foot gardening with my thai fires(fav pepper at that time). Well 27 instead of 24 popped so in they all went. I had 4 foot tall Thai Fires thanks to their "run for the sun"


EDIT:To add this pic of most of my 2008 harvest
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Got some pics! You can see on a couple that there are a lot of stems, they are very leggy compared to the single-stalk plants.
Which is something to consider, people put effort into growing plants that are NOT leggy. The downsides of a leggy pepper
may be eliminated by clumping them to provide shade and physical support, however. I am glad this thread came up because
I was wondering about these plants and how they grew so many stems from a single seed, now I have an answer!

You can see how skinny the stems are in comparison to younger peppers with one stem. The clumped plants have actually been
in the ground the longest! They are not doing as well as the solo peppers in the current cold wet weather, but they may very well
outperform the solo peppers when the hot weather arrives, if ever.

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I wonder how much clumping them will effect the size of the individual peppers.

-Phil
 
I've never had great luck when I've planted peppers close together, but I don't live in a hot climate either. I guess it makes sense that you could get more pods from 3 plants in a pot vs 1 plant in a pot, but what about 3 plants in a pot vs 3 plants in 3 pots? 1 plant per pot works better for me, but I don't doubt that clumping works great for others.
 
Very interesting stuff. I have bought some plants at the stores that had two growing in a container, and they looked pretty healthy. Then again, I've seen others where there was one huge plant and a really small one... so it probably depends on the growing conditions, how much one plant hogs the resources (light, soil nutrients) compared to the other, and whether they were growing together since they were little seedlings or only brought together when they were older and stronger.

The link posted earlier in the article that's supposed to be about clumping doesn't work, though...
 
Pauly, how is that pot of clumped up peppers doing? It's been a good 3 months now. Did they all grow nicely?

The cold weather here has knocked them about, but they seem to still be doing ok.

Leading into Summer I'll plant out a few more seedlings in both single plantings and clumps, and compare how they go.
 
This is what you call clumping.



That was taken on April 10 this year. It's now winter in Melbourne, and the plants still look remarkably similar to this, I'll take a pic when I get home from a work trip to Singapore.

I'm very interested to see how these plants survive over winter clumped so closely like this. Apart from my Asian Birdseye, I didn't get a lot of pods from the garden beds this year, but I think it might be due more to the amount of chicken manure and lucerne hay I used when initially putting the beds in. I suspect that if the plants survive through to Spring that I should have an excellent season next season.
 
3 years ago(2008) when I first got a garden going at this residence I dug a 24'[sup]2[/sup](6'X4') pepper patch. I was going to do square foot gardening with my thai fires(fav pepper at that time). Well 27 instead of 24 popped so in they all went. I had 4 foot tall Thai Fires thanks to their "run for the sun"


EDIT:To add this pic of most of my 2008 harvest
DSC01397-1.jpg

Nice looking ristras Brian! On occasion I give them away for Christmas presents. Just takes A LOT of peppers!!!
 
Yeah we called them dragon tails until I heard the term ristras this year. My kids still call them Dragon Tails.
:lol:
 
Bump for any updates from last season, and a note that I'm going to try this in my backyard raised bed this year. Planning on 10-12" spacing, with plants offset in two "rows" next to one another, unless there is advice otherwise...
 
I've done some "approach grafting" this season which is similar in some ways... several plants 1 pot, score, twist, tie, wait, and then you have 1 plant in 1 pot. This one plant is superior because it has multiple canopies (as has been mentioned) and a larger root system than would have been achieved otherwise, and has the added benefit of the possibility of creating stable graft hybrids ( I do not mean graft Chimeras, which will happen as well, but actual hybrids made by the genetic material of one plant passing into the other, and then healing back as one plant... The material will likely travel no further than the closest node... So be careful in your placement...

Either way, lots of pictures on my GLog (*pokes signature line*) :whistle:
 
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